Tuesday, August 01, 2006

WSOP Main Event Day 2A... and Liz Lieu Tuesdays

"If one more hot chick says hello to you in the hallway, I'm gonna put my cigarette out in your eye." - Otis on mega-tilt

We were walking to the Tilted Kilt Pub on dinner break yesterday. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a tall and striking woman wearing a sleek black cocktail dress and high heels she walked towards our motley crew of myself, Wil, Otis, CJ, and Change100.

"Hi Pauly!" she said as we were about five feet from each other.

It was Erica Schoenberg and she put Otis on mega-tilt, so much so that he threatened ocular violence against me. I think the Khmer Rogue tortured Cambodian farmers using similar tactics. Four the last few weeks Otis had to hear about the double kisses from Isabelle, Lacey Jones smiling for me in pics, the posters that Liz Lieu gave me, Lynette Chan posing for photos, and then the Erica hallway incident set him over the edge.

"I need to have sex. For three weeks straight," he muttered fidgiting with his wedding ring with his thoughts drifting towards Mrs. Otis back home in G-Vegas.

"That's funny, because I want to have sex right now. If you want to..." answered Ryan.

* * * * *

Don't forget to stop by the PokerStars Blog to see updates on specific PokerStars qualifiers and on Greg Raymer. Also for the best WSOP photos, you have to go see what Flipchip snapped over the last few days.

The first two legs (Day 1A and 1B) are combining today for Day 2A. Wesley Willburn is the chipleader in today's action with over $122K. Irishman Paul McCaffrey is also in the mix with 110K. My Irish sources Tom Murphy and Lucky Blind Lacey will be following their progress on Antes Up.

Bloggers Ryan K and Tuscaloosa Johnny are both in the hunt. Aaron Katz, a friend of Seattle John, also has chips along with my buddy Brandon Schaefer. I also have to keep an eye on Matt Maroon, Eric "Rizen" Lynch, Jason Stasser, Barry Greenstein, Katja Thater, and Humberto Brenes for PokerStars Blog. My coverage will be slanted towards those guys today.

By the way, thanks to the guys at Wicked Chops Poker for keeping me sane at the WSOP. I love their coverage and it's one of the best poker sites out there. And thanks to whoever linked up the Tao of Poker in the PocketFives.com forum. I heard you guys got your badges revoked which sucks camel balls.

And lastly, thanks to everyone who pimped my WSOP coverage on their blogs and put up the cool banner that Maudie made. I'm deeply indebted to your support. On days like this when I'm exhausted and going on 19 hours of sleep over the last 6 nights, I think about all of you guys and it fires me up and gives me a needed energy boost.

* * * * * Semi-Live Blogging Updates * * * * *

12:07pm... Cards are in the air. We're on Level 7. Blinds are $250/$500 with a $25 ante. 8,773 players bought in and around 6,000 have been eliminated. Top 873 playes get paid. $12 million will get paid for first place. The top 12 places will win at least $1 million.

12:10pm... 272 female players particapted in the 2006 WSOP according to Nolan Dalla who counted everyone in the field.

12:30pm... Bloggers Update: Johnny Kampis is up to $52K. His K-K held up against Big Slick. Brandon Schaefer is up to $22K after he scooped a pot when I walked by. Matt Maroon picked up a small pot and has about $84K.

1:00pm... WSOP Photo Dump: Here's a few. Feel free to click on the photos to see an enlarged view.

2:40pm... Bloggers Update: Tuscaloosa Johnny has 71.5K. He got K-K again, which held up against A-Q. He also made a squeeze play wth A-7.

3:00pm... Recent Elimination: Bill Gazes is gone.

3:30pm... Recent Elimination: Barry Greenstein busted when his K-9 ran into A-10. Berry Johnston is also out. John Juanda is also gone. Most of the named pros are dropping out in the first two levels.

3:35pm... Bloggers Update: Matt Maroon was moved tables and I lost track of him. Brandom Schaefer has $7K. Tuscaloosa Johnny has $71.5K. Ryan has $47K and dropped the Hammer.

3:45pm... Recent Elimination: E-Fro is gone.

4:00pm... I just posted an article over at PokerStars Blog called Poker Ambassadors. Take a peek.

4:07pm... Recent Elimination: Men the Master hits the rail after he loses with TPTK to a set of threes. I think he's going downtown for All You Can Eat shrimp.

4:10pm... WSOP Photo Dump: Click on the photos to see an enlarged view.

Scotty's Bling

Tao of Poker's Pothead of the Day: Shaniac

Porn for poker players

Strasser's chips

4:20pm... Smoke break.

4:40pm... Recent Elimination: Mike Sexton has been busted out of the 2006 WSOP.

4:50pm... Recent Elimination: Fire up the bong, Shaniac is out.

4:55pm... Irish Update with Antes Up: "The Irish are storming at this moment," Tom Murphy from Antes Up recanted to me. "Andrew Leonard turned 20K stack into 100K. McCaffrey dropped to 75K. Niall O'Callahagn's Queens ran into Aces. Joe "The Show" O'Neil has been called 'American Idol' by his tablemates for singing at the tables. He got F-bombed seven times last year. He convinced one floor person that what he was saying was an Irish word and not 'fuck.' He sernades female dealers with his good singing voice. There was an objection to his card capper,w hich is a fake pile of dogshit. When one person had a problem with it, O'Neil said, 'My mum gave it to me. For luck.'"

5:00pm... Jay Greenspan made a rare appearance in the media room. We all applauded and then we got shushed by some rookies in the corner.

5:05pm... Bloggers Update: Tuscaloosa Johnny hit quads again at the WSOP. He flopped a set of 10s, then turned quads. He even got his opponent to push his stack all in on the river. Tuscaloosa Johnny has 114K.

5:24pm... Recent Elimination: David Sklansky is out.

5:35pm... Bloggers & Friends Update: I found Matt Maroon. He has 110K. Rizen has 78K. Quiet Lion has 54K. Ryan has 37.5K. Brandn Schaefer has 12K. Humberto Brenes has 66K. Jason Strasser is up to 225K after he scooped a 65K pot when he sniffed out a hammer bluff from his opponent. He had 9-9 with 3 overcards on the board.

6:00pm... Recent Elimination: The young gun and two-time 2006 bracelet winner finally ran out of gas. Jeff Madsen is out.

6:08pm... Payouts! Thanks to Howard at PokerStars Blog for getting the following information:

6:11pm... Mad reported, "Mike Matusow is here doing a royal tour in the tournament area." Last night, Phil Hellmuth was seen lurking around, trying to get face time. He walked up to the featured table and wished Joe Hachem luck in full view of ESPN's cameras.

6:15pm... I wandered over and caught a hand with Aaron Katz and Scotty Nguyen. ESPN cameras filmed it.

Aaron fakes the all-in

Aaron and Scotty

6:24pm... Recent Elimination: Devilfish and Danny Masterson have both been busted.

6:50pm... Dinner break. I'm on mega-tilt. Need liquor or valium. Please send them to the media room when you can.

8:20pm... I lost a propbet with Wil. I was convininced that our waitress at the Tilted Kilt was in a porn that I had on my laptop from the infamous Spunkmouth series. We rushed back to the media room to verify and I was wrong. It wasn't her.

9:07pm... Annie Duke was concerned that the players were busting out too fast on Day 2A, so much so that she called her brother Howard Lederer who is one of the pros on the WSOP Players Advisory committee.

Originally, play on Day 2A was supposed to go six levels or until they had 900 players remaining. Over 1,800 started (the exact number is still unconfirmed) began the day and as of the dinner break, there were 86 tables remaining on the tournament floor or roughly 855 players, which is well under the 900 mark originally set forth. CC, CJ, and myself went onto the floor to physical count the remaining tabes.

Players going out faster than expected is a very good thing (from my standpoint) and the players who'd like a couple extra hours of rest or a chance to play cash games. However, Annie raised a valid point... if they played down to 400 or until level 6 ended and the top 873 players get paid, that would mean the players that play Day 2B had a better chance at making the money.

TD's decided that they would end play at 500 players or level 6 whichever came first. There's a small chance I'll get out of here early tonight, but you never know.

9:30pm... Recent Elimination: Daniel Alaei is out.

9:45pm... Recent Elimination: Say good-bye to Shirley Williams. The mother of David Williams, who's sponsored by Absolute Poker, just busted out by Hoyt Corkins.

11:20pm... Jason Strasser was moved to Matt Maroon's table. Maroon has about $240K and Strasser has about $360K. There's so many chips on their end of the table, it was about to tip over. With over $600K in chips, those two represented 60 buy-ins. Tusacloosa Johnny is up to $132K while Ryan is hovering around $25K.

11:30pm... WSOP by the Numbers: 1,637 players started today. 1,736 will play tomorrow, which means that 5,300 players busted out during the first four days and that 3,473 players survived the first round.